


flickering embers

by rainbowysl



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Baking, Christmas, First Kiss, M/M, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 04:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17594561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowysl/pseuds/rainbowysl
Summary: Things have been...interesting with JT lately. They’ve always been good friends, had clicked the second they met, but recently things have started to change. The hands laid casually on shoulders or backs have started to linger. More than once, Tyson has fallen asleep during the TV marathons they do on off days, only to wake up in the middle of the night curled up on JT’s chest as JT snores softly beneath him.





	flickering embers

**Author's Note:**

> [shows up to new year's 3 weeks late with starbucks for the 2nd year in a row]
> 
> this fic took AGES to finish but it was such a blast writing this pairing for the first time. endless love to my betas riley and em who cheered me on through the whole process of writing this and who helped me clean it all up when i finally finished it.
> 
> title from "Old Flames (Can't Hold A Candle To You)" by Dolly Parton because I listened to This Is: Dolly Parton on spotify on repeat to push myself through writing this. Please check out the Kesha ft. Dolly Parton version, it's amazing.

Wins haven’t been coming recently and when they do it feels like they’ve had to claw their way to the end, hanging on to a lead by a thread, praying for the final buzzer to sound. So when JT texts to ask if Tyson wants to hang out, get some Christmas shopping done, just the two of them after morning skate, Tyson jumps on it.

Things have been...interesting with JT lately. They’ve always been good friends, had clicked the second they met, but recently things have started to change. The hands laid casually on shoulders or backs have started to linger. Sometimes Tyson will look over at JT during practice or a game to find him already looking back. More than once, Tyson has fallen asleep during the TV marathons they do on off days, only to wake up in the middle of the night curled up on JT’s chest as JT snores softly beneath him.

Tyson’s scrolling absent-mindedly on his phone when there’s a knock on the hotel room door. He hops up to open the door for JT, pats his pockets to make sure he has everything he needs, and then calls a goodbye to Kerf, who’s reading in his own bed. Kerf raises a hand wordlessly in return, not even looking up from his book. If he notices the hand that JT gently places on the small of Tyson’s back, he doesn’t say anything.

It’s beautiful and sunny and they have some time before they really need to be back to get ready for the game against the Yotes, so they take their time. They wander in and out of shops, sometimes stopping to buy something for their sisters or their moms before moving on to the next place. Eventually they walk past a park with a frankly enormous Christmas tree and a big red sleigh sitting in front of it. JT drags Tyson along with him to go sit in it.

“There’s not even a photographer around, you just wanna sit in some red sleigh for no reason?” There are plenty of park benches around them if JT wanted to sit down so badly.

“Uh, yeah,” JT says, like it should be obvious. “It’s Christmas, Josty, where’s your holiday spirit?”

“Can’t believe I’m the adult in this relationship,” Tyson mumbles, letting himself be dragged by the hand over to the sleigh. He realizes what he’s said with a blush as they sit down, his face flushing to match the sleigh they’re in.

“Relationship, huh? Is that what this is?” JT asks.

“I—I just meant,” Tyson stutters, but when he turns to look at JT, JT is smiling at him. And oh, wow, JT is much closer to him than he thought he was. They’re so close their noses are almost brushing and he can just feel JT’s breath ghosting over his lips as he leans impossibly closer. The park they’re in is empty, the tree behind them hiding them from the view of the sidewalk on the other side, and if Tyson just leans forward to meet him, they could really just—

“Hey guys!”

They leap apart at the voice like they’ve been shocked, and turn to see Gabe, Mikko, Nemo, and Colesy walking toward them. Gabe’s got a look on his face that says he knows exactly what they walked up on and Mikko looks uncharacteristically interested in something on his phone, so Tyson would guess it was one of them that called out to let them know they weren’t alone anymore. Colesy and Nemo are too busy jostling each other back and forth as Colesy tries to get Nemo in a headlock to even acknowledge the two of them for the time being.

“How’s it going boys?” JT says, slapping a smile on his face like the past two minutes hadn’t happened at all.

“Just finishing up some shopping,” Gabe says, looking between them. “You?”

Tyson wordlessly lifts up his shopping bags from where they’d been sitting on the floor of the sleigh.

“Oh, sick,” Colesy says loudly, finally noticing the sleigh, and then JT and Tyson. “Oh, what’s up guys?”

Tyson nods at him. He’s afraid if he tries to speak right now, he’ll say something stupid.

“We should get a picture!” Nemo says, wriggling out of the headlock Colesy had finally gotten him in.

The other boys gather around the sleigh where Tyson and JT are still sitting while Nemo grabs a woman walking past to take their picture. She doesn’t seem to recognize any of them, and for this Tyson is incredibly grateful.

She takes the picture and accepts their thank you’s with a smile and they all head on their way, shopping bags in hand.

Gabe falls back behind Colesy, Nemo, and Mikko, who are all shoving at each other again, to fall into step with JT and Tyson.

“I don’t want to speak out of turn,” he says quietly, so only the two of them can hear him. “But you boys should be more careful.”

JT stiffens on the other side of Gabe. “Don’t know what you mean, Gabe,” he says.

Tyson blushes and Gabe sighs, and they follow the other three in silence the rest of the way back to the hotel.

🏒🏒🏒

Their flight into Denver had gotten in late, but the blessing of their Christmas break comes with no practice the next day so Tyson lets himself sleep in. He and JT are heading out to see their families later in the day, but he makes it until about ten in the morning before his body naturally wakes him up, and he drags himself out to the kitchen.

JT is already there, in some old sweatpants and a threadbare t-shirt that looks so soft it makes Tyson want to rub his face on it. He slides a cup of coffee over to Tyson, just how he likes it, and Tyson hums gratefully into the first sip, leaning back against the counter.

JT turns back to the bacon and eggs he has cooking on the stove top, a little smile pulling at his lips that Tyson pretends not to notice.

The two of them stand there in companionable silence until Tyson’s stomach growls loudly.

JT laughs. “Hungry?”

Tyson nods and JT piles the eggs and some of the bacon onto a plate and hands it to Tyson.

Tyson frowns. “Aren’t these for you?”

JT shrugs. “There’s more. Figured you’d be getting up soon anyway, so I made enough for both of us.”

Something warm and slightly painful swells in Tyson’s chest and he looks up at JT to see him staring back. Tyson grips his coffee a little tighter when he sees JT’s eyes flick down to his lips and back up to his eyes. JT leans forward, the spatula he was using to cook still in his hands, and Tyson watches him come closer and then closes his eyes waiting for their lips to meet.

And then there’s a loud _THUMP_ of a bag being dropped and the sound of the refrigerator door opening. Tyson opens his eyes to see Kerf digging around noisily in the fridge. JT is back at the stove, staring intently at the eggs in the pan in front of him.

“We got any Gatorade left?” Kerf asks, his voice slightly muffled.

When there’s no response, he pulls his head back out of the fridge to see JT still studiously focused on his eggs and Tyson gripping his coffee like it’s the only thing still tethering him to this plane of reality.

“Guys?”

“I think there was some out in the garage,” JT says, still not looking away from his breakfast, which he’s now piling onto his own plate.

Tyson watches as Kerf looks back and forth between the two of them, an eyebrow raised, obviously aware that something’s up.

“Okay…” he says. “Well I guess I’ll see you guys after the break. Have a good Christmas.”

Tyson nods and JT says “you too, man” while rooting around in the silverware drawer. Kerf gives them one last weird look and then grabs his bag and heads toward the front of the house. Tyson stares into his coffee until he hears the front door shut behind Kerf and then heads back to his room to finish packing.

🏒🏒🏒

Neither of them brings up what’s been going on between them lately on the way to the airport that afternoon, and JT falls asleep almost instantly once they’re seated on the plane. When they arrive, they’re greeted by their mothers and sisters and Tyson pretends to be embarrassed when his mom presses kisses all over his face.

The rest of the day is filled with settling in and trading stories of everything that’s happened since they all got together. Kacey makes them both promise that they’ll bake Christmas cookies tomorrow and JT’s sisters hang up mistletoe all over the house, which Tyson carefully avoids the rest of the night.

After dinner they all get dragged into watching _Love, Actually_ , which JT protests loudly even though Tyson knows for a fact that it’s his favorite Christmas movie. They’ve almost made it to the end when Tyson looks over to see JT and his sisters curled together on the couch, all of them fast asleep. He sneaks a picture while, on the television, Colin Firth awkwardly stumbles through a Portuguese proposal. He looks up to find JT’s mom smiling at him and he quickly ducks his head and turns back to the movie, trying to hide his blush.

Once the movie ends, JT’s mom wakes them up and Tyson tries not to stare at JT’s sleepy smile as he wakes up, and tries harder not to blush again when JT ruffles his hair on the way past as he heads to bed.

The next day, the moms and JT’s sisters head out for some very last-minute shopping (“Stocking stuffers are very important, Tyson”) leaving the two of them alone with Kacey. Tyson and JT take possession of the television and play Mario Kart until Kacey comes in to remind them that they’d promised to help her with cookies.

JT walks through the door to the kitchen at the same time as Kacey and then looks up to see the mistletoe that his own sisters had hung up the night before. He holds her face between his hands and gives her an exaggerated, smacking kiss on the forehead, making her giggle and Tyson roll his eyes.

The cookie making goes smoothly until about an hour in. Kacey’s left the room to talk to their mom, who’d called to ask about something they’d found at the mall. JT lands a chirp that’s too good and Tyson throws flour in his face. JT stands there, stunned, staring at Tyson and then grins and retaliates, grabbing a big handful of flour and rubbing it into Tyson’s hair. They grapple for possession of the flour, trying to one up each other, until suddenly there’s flour covering nearly every surface of the kitchen, and both of them, and JT’s arms are around Tyson’s waist. There’s a big spot of flour on the tip of JT’s nose and Tyson reaches up to brush it off, his fingers lingering. He can vaguely hear his sister chattering away in the other room, but otherwise it’s quiet and JT’s just looking at him.

Tyson pulls his hand back from JT’s face and settles it on his chest instead. He can feel JT’s heart pounding under his fingers and can feel the flush rising in his own face. They’re close enough together that their noses are almost touching and Tyson is starting to go cross-eyed.

“Gotta…stop meeting like this,” he says breathlessly, trying to relieve some of the tension that’s settled over them. JT doesn’t say anything, just rubs his nose up against Tyson’s, closing his eyes. Tyson shudders out a breath and lets his own fall closed as JT leans toward him.

And then there’s footsteps coming and JT’s arms unwind from around Tyson’s waist with a mumble that sounds like “son of a bitch.”

“Hey, Mom said text her with whatever candy you want in your stocking, and I told her that’s dumb it’s supposed to be a surprise, and—” Kacey cuts off abruptly as she appears in the doorway. She looks between the two of them. “Am I interrupting something?”

And then her expression changes as she takes in the state of the kitchen. “Oh my god, Mom’s gonna kill you,” she says gleefully.

Tyson looks around at the disaster they’ve created. “Yeah we should probably…” He gestures around them.

“Yep!” JT agrees and they start the impossible task of cleaning the kitchen before their moms get home while Kacey documents it all and laughs at them.

🏒🏒🏒

The rest of their short break passes mostly uneventfully (except for the girls getting their hands on Tyson’s hair when he was half asleep and giggling as they braided it, and recorded all of it, as he finds out later). Tyson arrives in Vegas feeling refreshed and ready to get some games back and turn their luck around.

Getting back on the ice for morning skate feels good. Tyson loves the burning in his legs, the sharp sound his skates make when he stops on a dime and changes direction, the slap of the puck off his stick when he buries it in the back of the net. He just wishes he could find a way to make it happened when it mattered.

Despite the losing streak behind them as they come off of their Christmas break, the boys are all smiling when they get off the ice and head to the showers. JT finally makes it into the locker room as almost everyone else is heading out to go get some rest before they have to report back for the game that night. Tyson is just getting back from the showers, using the time to let the hot water loosen some of the knots in his shoulders along with the knotted up thoughts in his head. He’s sitting in just his jeans and rubbing a towel over his head when JT flops down next to him on the bench. Never mind that there’s a whole locker room available to him.

“Sick fuckin’ shooting out there, man,” he says, still panting from the extra work he was doing with Barrie and Nate.

Tyson smiles and knocks his shoulder into JT’s. “Thanks. Just wish I could get it to go during games.”

JT knocks him back. “It’ll happen. Just keep putting pucks on net.”

“Get pucks in deep,” Tyson says putting on his media voice. He ruins the effect when he starts giggling halfway through.

JT grins at him. “Wait for me? I split an Uber with Kerf and he already left.” He pulls his jersey up over his head as he talks and reveals that he’s not wearing a shirt under it, so now he’s just standing in front of Tyson with his pads on and his stupid, perfect abs on display. Tyson can’t look away.

“Tys?”

Tyson startles and looks up at JT. “Huh?”

JT’s staring back at him. “Will you wait for me?”

Tyson looks at him a beat longer. Swallows. “Yeah.” Somehow, he’s not sure they’re still talking about JT’s shower.

JT gets a weird look on his face, and Tyson can almost see the gears turning behind his eyes, but he just grabs a towel from his cubby and heads off to the showers.

Tyson takes his time getting dressed the rest of the way and packing up his stuff to head back to the hotel. He’s just put aside his gear from morning skate for the equipment guys to take care of when Nate and Tyson Barrie come barreling into the locker room, arguing about god knows what.

They’re halfway undressed, and still squabbling (about Fortnite, apparently) when Barrie finally notices that someone else is in the locker room with them.

“Nathan for the last time I do not care about the intricacies of landing locations and battle strategies, I’m going to light your entire console on fire—oh what’s up Josty,” Barrie says as Tyson drops his bag heavily on the floor, and then glances behind Tyson. “Hey, JT.”

Tyson turns to see JT coming back into the locker room with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair is still dripping a bit and his skin is flushed from the hot water. Tyson swallows hard and turns to Nate.

“So, what’s the big deal with where you land?” He asks, even though he absolutely knows because JT plays it constantly.

Barrie lets out a groan and heads off to the showers as Nate launches into a detailed explanation of his Fortnite strategies and why they’re obviously superior. Tyson nods along like he cares. Anything to avoid looking at JT while he changes. He’s surprised JT hasn’t joined in on the conversation.

Nate has just gotten around to the pros and cons of each celebration dance when JT nudges him. Tyson turns to see him fully dressed, thankfully, with all his stuff packed.

“You ready to go?”

Tyson nods and lifts a hand to wave to Nate, and then the two of them head outside.

It’s not nearly as cold as back home, but it's chilly enough that Tyson wishes he’d brought a jacket to the rink and he shifts closer to JT as they wait on the curb. It’s taking a weirdly long time for their Uber to show up.

Tyson tries to suppress a shiver, but JT clearly notices and wraps an arm around his shoulders.

“You big baby,” he teases, rubbing up and down Tyson’s arm. Tyson takes the opportunity to curl in closer. And then he makes the mistake of looking up. For the fourth time in a week JT is staring at him and they’re way closer than Tyson feels like they should be in public. But there’s no one around, and no one would even recognize them in Vegas.

This time, Tyson’s the one to lean forward, going up on his toes slightly to reach JT’s height. He can feel JT’s breath against his lips, all he has to do is lean forward a little more and then—

“Oh, nice, did you guys grab an Uber already?” Barrie’s voice comes from behind them.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” JT says, and turns toward the car that’s finally pulled up in front of them.

“Can we share?” Barrie asks, Nate following behind him, rolling his eyes and looking at Tyson apologetically.

“Tys, you can’t call me dumb anymore,” Nate says.

“Why not?” Barrie asks, climbing into the car without waiting for an answer from Tyson or JT, or Nate for that matter.

“Oh my god,” Nate says and turns to Tyson. “You mind?”

Tyson just shrugs and gets in next to Barrie, who’s settled into the middle seat while JT took the window on the other side. Nate hops in shotgun. As the car pulls away from the curb, Tyson catches JT’s eye. JT smiles softly at him and then turns to look out the window for the rest of the drive back.

🏒🏒🏒

They lose again, can’t even push it to overtime, and by the time they get to the plane, Tyson doesn’t want to do anything but fall asleep so he doesn’t have to think about all his missed chances and their growing losing streak.

His body, of course, is not on board with this. He keeps shifting around and finally getting comfortable only for his body to get all twitchy again five minutes later. He knocks his head back against the headrest of his seat and sighs in frustration.

“You okay?” JT asks quietly from beside him. Tyson jumps a little. He’d thought everyone else was asleep.

Tyson shrugs. He presses his eyes shut against the prickling he can feel starting there. He’s not a crier, but he’s so tired and so frustrated—with so many things. All it took was two words spoken so genuinely from JT to push him over the edge.

There’s so much tangled up in his head but what comes out is, “What if they send me down?”

“Hey.” A hand brushes through his hair gently, pushing the curls back off his forehead. “They’re not gonna do that.”

Tyson opens his eyes and looks at JT. “But what if they do?” he asks hopelessly.

JT looks back at him, and this is a look Tyson’s never seen on him. It’s soft and open, like if he looks at Tyson long enough, he can communicate everything he’s feeling. He brushes Tyson’s hair back again, running his fingers through it.

“Then you work your ass off and come back here to m--us.” He blushes slightly, red just dusting his cheekbones. “It’s not a death sentence, Tys.”

Tyson leans into JT’s touch. “I’m just tired.” He knows he doesn’t have to explain to JT that he doesn’t just mean physically.

“I know.” JT’s hand comes down to his cheek now, brushing his fingers over Tyson’s cheek.

And this has to be it. Everyone else is asleep. No one could possibly interrupt them this time. Tyson wraps his hand around JT’s where it rests on his cheek. He and JT lean forward at the same time, and this is it, they’re finally, finally, going to--

And that, of course, is when EJ pops over the seat in front of them and says, “Hey, you both owe me money for the socks thing--whoa, what’s up guys?”

“Oh, COME ON,” Tyson says and he knows immediately that he was too loud.

“Whazgoinon,” Nate slurs as he startles awake across the aisle and nearby there’s a _bang_ and a loud swear as Colesy wakes up violently and bangs his head against the window behind them.

JT has hands over his face and Tyson just leans back against his seat in defeat as EJ eyes them both.

“Alright that’s an extra thousand for the PDA and you,” he points at Tyson. “Get a smooth two K for waking up the entire team.”

JT gives him a thumbs up, still not pulling his hands away from his face. When EJ slides back down, Tyson flips the bird to the back of his seat.

“Five hundred!” EJ calls, and Tyson groans.

🏒🏒🏒

Two more losses, both in overtime, to teams they absolutely shouldn’t have lost to feels pretty bad, but Barrie declares that, despite this, they absolutely will be having a New Year’s celebration and no one is allowed to duck out of it. He relents slightly after a bunch of the married guys protest this, wanting to go home to be with their families.

“Okay, anyone who’s married, go home, be boring. The rest of you,” Barrie glares around at the single guys and guys with girlfriends around the room. “Better be at my house in an hour. No arguments,” he adds when EJ opens his mouth.

Tyson showers long enough to rinse off the stink of the game and then heads home with Kerf and JT. There’s a lingering disappointment from the loss as Kerf drives them back home to get ready, but there’s a small, indescribable excitement bubbling up in Tyson. He doesn’t want to hold out too much hope, but everyone knows what happens when it strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve and he and JT have been dancing around this thing for so long. He doesn’t let the hope build too much, but it settles comfortably in his chest like flickering embers.

Getting ready takes much longer than an hour since there are three grown men trying to share a single bathroom and Tyson has to change more than once when JT tells him that something doesn’t work with his outfit. He rolls his eyes fondly when Tyson pouts and asks for his help the third time he leaves his room in an apparently offensive looking shirt.

“It’s not my fault I can’t see what color it is.”

JT just pats him comfortingly on the shoulder and digs around in his closet for a bit. After a while he resurfaces with (what Tyson thinks is) a blue shirt with little white polka dots on it.

“This and your black jeans. You can see black, right?”

“Yes, dickhead,” Tyson says, taking the shirt from JT. JT just smirks at him smugly and ducks back out the door.

Finally, Tyson is ready and he heads out to the living room to join his roommates. JT’s leaning against the counter and gives Tyson a grin and a thumbs up at his outfit. Kerf, who’s been sitting on the couch, hops up almost immediately.

“Tyson’s gonna kill us,” he mutters and herds the two of them toward the door.

When they get there, Barrie opens the door with a deeply unimpressed look on his face and a nearly empty drink in his hand.

“You’re late,” he says.

Kerf just points at Tyson and heads into the house, ignoring Tyson’s squawk of outrage.

Barrie turns back to Tyson and JT. “Almost midnight, boys,” he says, waggling his eyebrows.

“Leave the rookies alone, Brutes,” Nate says, appearing behind him and pulling Barrie back into the house with an arm around his waist. Barrie pouts until Nate presses a new drink into his hand. Nate rolls his eyes. “Come on in, guys.”

Nearly the entire rest of the team is already there, and even some of the married guys had decided to make appearances. With less than a half hour before midnight, Tyson decides it is very much in his best interest to help himself to a drink from Barrie’s kitchen. JT clearly shares the same thought and follows him in there.

They run into Mikko, Z, and Z’s wife in the kitchen and get caught up in dissecting the game, until Z catches sight of the look on his wife’s face that very clearly communicates “no shop talk.” He swoops down and kisses her on the cheek and whispers something that makes her smile.

Drinks in hand, the five of them wander back out into the living room. Colesy and his wife get up from one of the couches and JT grabs Tyson’s wrist and pulls him over to claim their seats. They settle in with their drinks and watch as EJ and Barrie bicker over the remote for the TV, arguing about which channel to watch for the ball drop, and yanking the remote back and forth between them. It nearly escalates to violence before Nate steps in and reveals to them both that they’d actually been fighting over the remote to the stereo and everyone’s been listening to the music stop, fast forward, and skip for the last five minutes.

Tyson laughs so hard his drink nearly comes out of his nose and he has to lean forward to put it down on the coffee table so he doesn’t spill it all over himself and the rest of the people squeezed onto the couch with him and JT.

He settles back against the couch and lets the arm closest to JT rest between their legs, his palm facing up. It’s not subtle, and he knows it, but everyone around them is too drunk to notice when JT twines his fingers with Tyson’s.

“Oh, it’s starting!” One of the wives says, and Tyson turns to follow where she’s pointing.

Nate has finally placated Barrie and EJ and they’ve got the TV tuned to ABC, where Ryan Seacrest and the rest of his crew have started counting down to midnight. Tyson turns back to look at JT as the rest of the room joins in with Ryan. JT smiles at him, soft, warm, and just for him.

“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six…” Tyson loses track of the rest of the count as JT’s gaze flicks down to his lips and back up to his eyes.

“Fuck it,” JT says, and with the hand not holding onto Tyson’s, he pulls Tyson into a kiss. Fireworks go off on the TV and outside and the room cheers, and Tyson knows it’s not for them, but it might as well be. JT’s lips are soft and warm beneath his own. When he opens his mouth, Tyson can taste vodka and the terrible fruity mixer he’d chosen on JT’s tongue. His beard scrapes against Tyson’s own bare skin, and it’s perfect.

Thankfully, JT seems to remember that they’re in front of all of their teammates and all of their teammates’ significant others, because Tyson could have gone on kissing him until the sun rose, and then maybe even longer.

They both huff out laughs and a happiness that Tyson hadn’t known he’d been repressing bubbles up inside his chest so fast it makes him breathless.

“Finally,” he says.

“Wait, what?!” Someone yells. They both turn to see EJ staring at them in disbelief. “Did you just say ‘finally’?!”

“Yes,” Tyson says, dragging out the ‘y’.

“This is the first time you’ve...you mean you never...what?” EJ looks like he’s on the edge of a breakdown.

“Is this the first time you guys have ever kissed?” Nate asks.

“Well we kept trying to, but you assholes wouldn’t stop interrupting!” JT bursts out suddenly, before turning a deep shade of red. EJ still looks like he might pass out. Nate pats him on the back comfortingly.

The room is totally silent until--

“Okay, you all owe me fifty bucks,” Z says. “You all say it happened earlier and you were wrong, so you pay up now.”

There’s a beat and then Barrie yanks a pillow off the couch next to him and throws it at Z. Z dodges it, laughing, and order is restored.

JT turns to Tyson and smiles at him again. “Come here,” JT says, and pulls him back in.

Tyson finally lets go of JT's hand to wrap his arms around JT's neck, all of the twisted up thoughts inside his head finally untangling. Fireworks boom outside as their friends chirp each other and laugh around them, and all Tyson can do is smile and lean into another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to follow the real schedule as closely as i could but the farther away from those games it became the harder it was so sorry for any weird timing.
> 
> unfortunately josty and jt didn't actually spend christmas together but Imagine If They Had


End file.
